Somehow, the God of the universe has been listening to me. Not only so, He has been answering many of my prayers with a “yes”. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7). I have been learning to remain, to dwell, and to stay deep in Jesus, and as I do He gives me His desires and teaches me how to pray His will.
This story actually begins in September of 2007. For the third year in a row I moved into one of the all-girl freshman dorms at Elon University to share my life and Jesus with them. The problem this year was that I didn’t have much time to spend with the girls on my hall. I had a few hard classes, and one that took over my life. As I realized I couldn’t give them all the time I wanted, I began to pray that God would impact them through my life anyway. I prayed regularly that Jesus would surround me and that they would see Him in my eyes and my smile.
Fast-forward a year after I began praying this prayer, and I am in The Philippines. It occurred to me how sovereign God was in directing me to pray this way because of the language barrier, but I still wondered if He could do as much without being able to speak to them. I began to fully believe He was answering my prayers when I was re-baptized in Hong Kong on Halloween. One of the prophecies spoken over me was that I don’t have to use words, but that people will know Jesus through my eyes and smile. Still, I never expected to see the fulfillment of this prophecy the way I did.
It actually happened on a day God told me to rest. Instead of participating in ministry that day, Marisa and I stayed back in our hotel praying, worshipping, and just letting Him love us all day. That evening my team went to dinner with a bunch of Chinese women who teach English to middle schoolers and I made a friend named Barb who had only been a believer for a month. Barb was so hungry for the Lord and it was a delight to teach her the basics of prayer and the scripture, but she got distracted on the phone about halfway through our conversation. Then suddenly her Buddhist brother and sister appeared and I found out she had called them so they could meet me.
At the time I didn’t think much of it. I continued teaching and talking to Barb because she was the only one who spoke English. I noticed her sister Jane staring at me, so I just looked at her and smiled. After awhile Barb told me her sister had something to tell me. With Barb translating, Jane came over and said, “Your eyes spoke words to me. Thank you for coming here, and thank you for your God. Now I know that Your God is the only true God.” With tears in my eyes, I explained who Jesus is in about three sentences just to make it clear that Jesus is the One she should follow, but I knew she didn’t need my words. The Holy Spirit was moving in her in a beautiful way. I have never seen anyone so joyful.
I got to spend some time with Barb, Jane, and their brother John in the next few days. There were a few beautiful things that happened. The first was the change in John’s face the next time I saw him, and finding that He now professed Jesus as the only God as well. The other beauty all came from their hunger for the Lord; how they hung on my every word, never wanted to let me leave, showered me with gifts, and wanted me to meet all their friends and share with them about Jesus too. Still, my favorite was how they leaned in to just inches away from my face when I prayed because they were so desperate to know how to talk to Him.
I have never been more convinced that the Lord is doing everything and that the ways He chooses to use me are gifts to me. I am learning to rely on the Holy Spirit and not my own knowledge, and it is amazing to see Him going before me to prepare people’s hearts. He already knows what He is going to do, and I am learning to be like Jesus and only do what I see my Father doing. I am praying big things over my presence in China, over my team and my squad’s presence in China, because I know that our presence is God’s presence because He dwells in us. God is doing so much more in us and through us than we are able to recognize, but I praise Him for the things we can and cannot see.
